Awakening The Only SSS-Rank Class! Now Even Dragons Obey Me

Chapter 757: The Battle Of Leaders III

Varnos was lying on the ground, his body half-sunk into the deep cracks of space, and his breaths were ragged and heavy.

Every inhale and exhale felt like a rusty blade scraping through his lungs.

The mana inside his body was no longer flowing. Instead, it was crashing against the walls of his existence like a wild flood, completely out of control.

In front of him, Alaric stood straight, motionless, and flawless. Even in this broken and collapsing battlefield, his presence was like a fixed point in the middle of chaos.

His gaze was directed downward, straight at Varnos, but not with anger or excitement... just with a cold certainty.

"...Is this how it ends?" This thought silently echoed in Varnos’s mind, right at the moment when another wave of pain passed through him.

The poison, like a living creature, crawled through his veins and slowly ate away at his existence.

He practically had no chance of winning in his current condition. Sure, he had borrowed power from the Moon Tree, but it wasn’t endless and it wasn’t free.

First of all, with the Moon Tree’s power he could only use the Moon Law again, and that too in a limited way, not like when he was at his peak.

And even with the Moon Tree’s help, because of the array he was still in a difficult position, and nothing could remove or even reduce this advantage the enemy had.

Still, he struggled to get up from his position. Even if he had no chance of winning, he couldn’t accept defeat so easily.

Besides, he still had one idea, one way that might be worth trying.

But the price was extremely high, so high that it could cause irreparable damage to the entire foundation and structure of the Guild.

Alaric took one step forward. There was no hurry in his movement, but that single step bent space. The void around him compressed and then, with an invisible tremor, a terrifying pressure was released.

[Void: Abyssal Sovereign Pressure]

This was no longer just physical pressure. It was something that attacked the "will" directly.

Varenos felt that not only his body, but even the desire to stand was breaking.

The ground beneath him sank, the cracks grew deeper, and even the weak remaining light around him was swallowed.

"I can crush you like an ant whenever I want, but I prefer to watch you get humiliated as much as possible before that," Alaric’s voice was calm but full of mockery.

Varnos tried to stand up. His muscles didn’t respond. His will trembled for a moment... and that was enough for the pressure to increase.

In that moment, the harsh truth became clear, a truth that had repeated many times in his mind.

With this body. With this serum. With this gap in power, there was no way to win. Continuing would only mean dragging out death.

Alaric was right. He could kill him whenever he wanted, but he was just satisfying his ridiculous desire for superiority by humiliating him.

After all, it wasn’t every day that someone saw an peak S-rank like him fall into such humiliation.

Suddenly Alaric’s hand appeared and delivered a hard slap to his face. The slap was so powerful that it shook the surrounding space and sent him flying dozens of kilometers.

Blood sprayed out of his mouth with terrifying force, and his eyes looked like they were about to pop out. His face had become swollen like a pig’s.

"Hahaha, what a beautiful face! I need a camera right now so I can make this scene eternal!" Alaric started laughing loudly.

From his laughter it was clear he was laughing from the bottom of his heart.

Varnos’s killing intent surged. Anger, rage, and unwillingness filled his entire being. He couldn’t tolerate being humiliated like this.

But he couldn’t stop it either!

What should he do?

Commit suicide? But was such a cowardly move worthy of his level? Wouldn’t doing that only humiliate him even more?

Besides, he was the hope of the entire Guild. If he committed suicide, the remaining structure of the Everlight Moon Guild would lose all hope and collapse.

So what could he do?

His eyes closed for a moment, and in the darkness, something sparked in his mind.

The Moon Tree.

The massive roots that had spread deep into the private dimension. The source that carried not only mana, but the Moon Law itself.

The Moon Tree was the most important foundation of the Guild. In fact, it was considered the entire source of the Guild’s power, a very special and powerful existence that his grandfather had obtained after conquering the eighth floor of the Tower.

In fact, the private dimension itself was somehow a product of this tree.

And it was also their greatest secret for raising National Rank Awakened and perhaps their only way to raise a Heavenly King.

In fact, his father had been in the private dimension beside this tree the entire time after the battle with Kaelos, trying to become a Heavenly King.

Becoming a Heavenly King was not an easy task at all, and they had almost no other way except relying on this tree. This tree was their only hope.

And to their surprise, they had discovered that it was really possible to become a Heavenly King with the help of the Moon Tree. It wasn’t easy, it required a lot of cost and time.

But it was possible!

They had realized that with the help of the Moon Tree they could raise three Heavenly Kings. One of them was supposed to be his father, and the other was supposed to be himself.

No decision had been made yet about the third one.

But now they might have to make a completely different decision, a decision that would change all the equations and the future of the Guild, but perhaps the only way to save the Guild.

His thought was calm and heavy, without hesitation, without turmoil. He didn’t open his eyes. He simply opened himself inside.

And he reached for the Moon Tree, not with his hand... but with his existence. And at that moment, the connection was established.

The tree responded, and Varnos made the final decision.

Complete sacrifice.

"If it’s going to end here... at least it will end by my own choice."

Far away, in the heart of the Everlight Moon Guild, the Moon Tree trembled.

First gently.

Then suddenly.

Its light was no longer soft and calm. It turned into a blinding explosion. Branches cracked one by one, roots twisted and broke apart, and the mana that had accumulated for centuries was released.

A wave of energy, like the explosion of a dying sun, spread across the entire territory.

The arrays started to malfunction one by one. Mana lines were cut and reconnected. Systems built on this tree began to collapse.

The Moon Tree collapsed, not gently of course but with tragic magnificence.

All that energy, like an endless flood, rushed toward Varnos.

"...What are you doing?" Alaric frowned for the first time.

But the answer was not given in words, but in what happened.

The energy reached Varnos’s body, but he didn’t swallow it. He only took and absorbed ten percent of that energy.

Ten percent of that endless ocean, and that ten percent was not used for strengthening. It was used for one thing.

Purification.

The poison inside his body struggled for a moment, as if it didn’t want to be destroyed. But the pure and ruthless wave of moonlight mana burned it. Not gently, but with complete brutality.

Varnos’s veins lit up. His body trembled. His breath stopped for a moment.

And then it calmed down.

The remaining energy... disappeared. Not with an explosion, not scattered, just... vanished as if it had never existed.

Of course the energy didn’t really disappear. It entered the body of another person, his father’s body, to help him become a Heavenly King as soon as possible.

He knew he had made a very big decision that might be a mistake. After all, he had completely changed the future of the Guild. Their Guild that could have had three Heavenly Kings could now only have one.

’Maybe... two.’ Though there was still one person in their Guild who didn’t need the Moon Tree to reach that level.

He trusted Daniel enough to know that he could reach that level.

Alaric sensed it, and this time his frown deepened.

"...Impossible."

He knew the poison. He understood its nature. This was not something that could be purified so easily, not at this level, not in this short time.

But the reality was standing right in front of his eyes. This bastard had really succeeded in destroying the serum.

But he was sure it couldn’t be without a price. This bastard had definitely paid a very high price for this.

Varnos moved calmly and without shaking, and this time without weakness.

He rose from the ground as if he hadn’t been on the verge of complete collapse moments ago. The space around him changed.

Moonlight spread everywhere, and his eyes, this time their depth was different. Not just calm... but infinite.

"Now... we can fight properly." His voice was calm, but there was no hesitation in it.

Alaric was no longer smiling and there was no mockery left in his gaze, only focus and something like... caution.

The mana around them rose. The void and light, two opposing forces, began to move again. Space between them twisted, cracked, and started to tremble.

"Let me show you the real power of the Everlight Moon Guild."